The invention relates to well screens and particularly to such screens which are formed by welding a slotted screen jacket to a perforated pipe base support. In water wells, it is usually possible to merely weld a screen, typically one made of stainless steel, to one end of a length of well casing. However, in oil wells, which typically are much deeper, the additional strength of a pipe base support is often required. Although corrosion resistance is important, the cost of using stainless steel screen jackets and pipe bases in large installations could be extremely expensive. To help reduce the expense, it has been proposed that the screen jacket and pipe base be made of low cost steel and provided with a protective coating such as a layer of electrostatically sprayed epoxy. Unfortunately, the coating cannot be applied after assembly of the screen jacket to the pipe base since it cannot be applied uniformly. Furthermore, when an attempt is made to coat the jacket and pipe base separately and then weld them directly to each other or to a common joining ring, the coating is destroyed in the area of the welds.